Project information

Project title:

Project's official title

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Kenya-German Postgraduate Training Program 50085235

50085235

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Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
DAAD

Abstract

Waqfs (religious endowments) are a socio-cultural heritage established in the seventh century to provide means to express taqwa (piety) for the purpose of qurba (divine closeness) and for the safeguarding of socio-economic security of the progeny and the community. As an Islamic charitable endeavor, it was expected that waqfs would be administered according to the Sharica by Muslim institutions of the mutawalli (custodian) with the kadhis (Muslim judges) and culama (clerics) not only interpreting the requisite normative precepts under which it subsists, but also settling matters arising there from. This not being the absolute case, the scenario puts the institution of waqf in Kenya under constant negotiations between the Muslims and the secular state on the one side, and among diverse socio-ethnic groups of Muslims on the other.
This study was, therefore, undertaken to achieve four significant objectives: To explore the historical development of the institution of waqf from the British colonial period (1900) to independent times (2010); examine secular state policies and civil courts’ rulings that influenced waqfs; interrogate Muslims’ response vis-à-vis the secular state and civil courts’ constructs in the practices of waqfs; and establish how Muslims use waqfs in their contribution to socio-cultural development of the society. To realize the set objectives, this study adopted a multi-disciplinary approach. Bourdieu’s theory of practice (1977), particularly the concepts of field, capital (symbolic, cultural, social, and political), and symbolic violence, aptly explained the negotiations among various state and non-state actors and agents in the control of resources including waqfs in the community.
While James C. Scott’s (1976) concept of symbolic (ideological) resistance was useful in understanding Muslims’ response to state control of waqfs, together with Bourdieu’s theory of practice, they could not adequately explain the internal socio-ethnic and cultural dynamics that informed the behaviors to consecrate, control, manage, and uses of waqfs by Muslims during and after colonization and outside the purview of the secular state. This accounts for the development and adoption of the concept of umiji-wamiji (locale identity and belonging) based on the historical fluid spatial relations between Muslim groups and regions in the country.
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Whereas primary data was collected in over ten months of extensive fieldwork along the predominant Muslim regions of Mombasa, Malindi/Kilifi, Lamu, and Kwale through informal talks with different waqf actors, analysis of requisite waqf records, and visits to waqf sites; secondary data was obtained through review of cutting edge investigations on waqfs across Muslim societies. Normative precepts as well qualitative and quantitative methods were used as the bases for analysis of the data, findings of which were presented using a fusion of historical, anthropological, and descriptive approaches.
The study established that secular state legislations and civil judicial rulings ushered in control of waqfs subjecting Muslims into socio-economic and cultural subordination since the British colonial times. Consequently, cowed by the loss of the socio-cultural heritage and its privileges, Muslims unwittingly ‘exited’ from state controlled waqfs to uncontrolled charitable institutions including sadaqa (alms giving), community based organizations, and other non-labeled waqfs as provided by the Sharica as part of Islamic charity. This exit did not only change the relations’ matrix between the ruler and the ruled into retaining ownership and control of resources for socio-cultural and economic power, but also helped Muslims to fulfill the spiritual obligation of giving back to the community through a wider concept of charity. This seemingly united response against state control of waqfs is, nonetheless, not to deny the prevalent internal dynamics in the Muslim community manifested in the use of waqfs to safeguard and promote temporal group and locale interests.